Ilkay Gundogan is talking quadruples, putting the ­pressure on Liverpool and what it will take for ­ Manchester City to prove they are the best.

But Gundogan still puts one thing ahead of everything else when it comes to his own ­priorities. He says City is all about having fun and pure “simplicity” on the pitch is the reason behind Pep Guardiola’s success.

“When you want to win ­something, when you have ­ambitions, you should never lose it,” said Gundogan. “Once you stop ­having fun, there’s nothing worse.

“We should never forget why we started this game. It’s because of fun. No-one expected us to ­become professionals, earn good money and be where we are.

Ilkay Gundogan has revealed the secret behind Man City's success

“It’s because of our talent, ­because of our hard work, ­because of different things, but the main thing is that we love this game because it’s so much fun, fun to play, fun to watch and be in the stadium.

“I love simplicity in the game, the more simple things feel on the pitch, the more you enjoy it.

“It’s not as easy to have that connection as it maybe looks. But once you have it, it feels easy to play to amazing football.”

Maybe that is why City seem to be ­handling this season and the push for four trophies so well. Sergio Aguero is smiling, ­Raheem Sterling is larking about and Guardiola already has one trophy after lifting the Carabao Cup at Wembley last Sunday.

City are in the FA Cup ­quarter-finals, won the first leg of their Champions League tie at Schalke and can really turn up the heat on title rivals Liverpool this weekend.

Gundogan feels City are ­playing every bit as well as last year’s record-breaking title-­winning season but it is just the competition has got tougher and ­retaining trophies is the true test of greatness.

“The only thing we can do is put pressure on, it’s what we want to do,” he said.

“There’s 10 games left, but there will be some kind of ­failure – a game where we lose points, ­either Liverpool or us – so we want to lose as few as possible.

“We want to want the title back-to-back which history shows is such a difficult thing.

“It’s difficult to win something, but to do it back-to-back is ­incredibly hard. This season feels exactly like that.

“It’s not because we’re playing worse than last year but our challengers for the title are much better than they were than last year – and obviously this is great for the league in general.

“But with our quality we have the ­responsibility to play every game in every ­competition like we have a ­realistic chance to win it. But I can’t predict for sure whether it (the quadruple) is ­actually possible.

“We can challenge everyone in every competition. When you have such a great squad, it doesn’t matter how many games you have in the end because you can change ­players in ­different positions but still have a team with great quality.

“I never had the feeling that our quality dropped because we ­always stick to one plan, we have game-changers on the pitch and it doesn’t matter if there’s two, three, four or even five different players, you still have the feeling we should win.”

Ilkay Gundogan of Borussia Dortmund makes a run through midfield (Image: Getty)

Gundogan does, however, has his sights set on one of the four trophies as the No.1 target as he believes it would take City to a different level and also banish the ghost of losing a Champions League final when he was at Borussia Dortmund.

“For me, the Champions League is the greatest thing, to win it is the ­greatest thing that can happen to you as a ­footballer,” he added. “Maybe that’s because I’ve already lost a final when I was at Dortmund.

“Our team now is so much better than the team we had at Dortmund at that time. It felt realistic at that time to achieve it but everyone knows how difficult it is to reach the final and then win it. It’s so tough.

“But if you want to be the best, then, in my opinion, you have to win the Champions League.

Gundogan wants to prove they are the best by winning the Champions League (Image: Getty)

“Not just the best team but the best club and that’s just what history showed us if you think about the Barcelonas, Real Madrids.

“If you win the Champions League and they talk about you then they use the word ‘best.’ If you want to become the best in Europe you have to win the Champions League, that is fact.

“We don’t have one special player who can change ­everything like Messi or ­Ronaldo, but it’s hard to name another team in Europe with so many great players in their squad.